Um...This story got left so far in the dust, but it was partially due to computer issues where I lost the list I was working off which had who did what and what hasn't been done. BUT to make up for the (What?) almost two year wait, I believe this chapter is a little on the longer side compared to the other chapters. With the long gap between chapters, you'll probably need to refresh yourself of the happenings and the good stuff like that and I apologize, it's a bit rough...(There has been a nearly two year gap in my writing ability...hopefully...) xP
Disclaimer: IMAA does not belong to me. Nope. Nada.
Happy, still fully entertained by all of this, didn't seem the least bit concerned that their list has dwindled down to the last round. Perhaps, he didn't notice due to his current preoccupation of trying to encourage Rhodey–who insisted that that wasn't necessary–in his difficulties in the elevator.
"Dude," Happy slapped an arm around Rhodey's shoulder. "You were amazing! I don't know what you didn't see, but I thought you were perfect!"
"I sounded like a dying walrus," Rhodey deadpanned, eliciting a laugh from the other two.
"Exactly!" Happy cheered. "That's what made it all the more funny! Anyway, it's my turn, right?"
Rhodey slid the list closer to the brutish teen eagerly. "By all means, go ahead."
While Happy glanced at his choices, or choice, Tony walked over to his friend and silently held up a fist. Rhodey rolled his eyes, but bumped the genius' fist anyway and ignored Pepper's playful wink his way. He had to admit, even though he likely epically failed that last go at it in the elevator, it was still pretty entertain to practice his "crying" skill. Though, Pepper had that skill mastered hands down.
Tony was close to asking Happy what the hold up was, when he finally shot straight up. "I got it!" Happy exclaimed suddenly darting quicker than ever to his next adventure in the elevator.
The trio left behind sat back to enjoy the show as Happy proudly went to fulfill his last mission.
…
Happy stood in the elevator silently, observing those around him. A teen solely focused on her phone, an adult rocking a fussy toddler on her hip, and elder gentleman tapping his foot patiently as he waited for the door to close after happy situated himself in the elevator. He nodded in greeting, not giving off any indication of any mischief.
Once they were finally on the move, Happy made a point to act as if he was busy with something. Be it fidgeting with his shoelaces, reading the time on his nonexistent watch, or fixing his too-short-to-do-anything-with hair, he was doing something. Then as they approached the next floor to allow people on and/or off, he stopped as the door opened.
He quickly leaned over towards the teen, who still had her nose stuffed in her phone, before hurriedly whispering, "Hide it...quick!"
The girl jumped in her startle and promptly shoved her phone where Happy had a hard time not looking. "What? Why?"
Happy bit back a laugh as he realized basically everyone in the elevator gave pause to his words, as if truly concerned that something bad, yet interesting was going down. "They're watching," Happy shrugged, trying not to look suspicious a he ignored all the stares. "Always."
He then went on to whistled innocently as if nothing had happened.
The teen wasted no time bolting out the elevator, nearly crashing into a lovely looking elderly couple while the mother also took her leave. Happy couldn't hold it any longer as he let out a round of laughter, tears leaking from the corners of his eyes in his glee. He could only wonder what the girl was doing on her phone that freaked her out so much.
Setting the thought aside, Happy exited the elevator at the next stop content at ending his turn there. Afterall, there wasn't much better than what he got.
While the doors are opening, hurriedly whisper, "Hide it...quick!" then whistle innocently.
Done.
…
The trio was about choking on their own laughter when Happy returned to them. As expected, the first words out of his mouth was to question if they knew what the girl was doing. Fortunately–more like unfortunately–they did know the answer.
"Really?" Happy inquired, having expected otherwise. "What was it?"
Tony just avoided the curious teen's eyes and picked up a roll of scotch tape they miraculously found in Happy's backpack. "It's my turn!"
"Wait, what was on her phone?" Happy insisted.
"Nothing," Tony supplied. "She's just paranoid."
A smirk spread across the brute's lips. "It was women wasn't it?" at the strange look he corrected himself. "I meant men. Were they…?"
"What? Ew, no!" Tony protested moving quickly towards the door. "Ask Pepper, maybe she'll fill you in."
Cutting off her protests by shutting the door, Tony quickly moved to find the elevator hoping that nothing obstructs his last turn and incurring Happy to prolong this little deal between the group. His twirled the roll of tape around his index finger as he waited for the door to the elevator to open. As it finally did, one person exited leaving the elevator empty. Tony shrugged. It worked for him.
As soon as the door shut he set out to work with building his "square" on the floor that was essential to his plan. He was just building the third side to his square when a group of children piled onto the elevator unattended except by a slightly older looking boy.
He shooed a few of the kids who even slightly touched the rim of his square. "This is my personal space," he announced to them clearly.
One giggled and persisted to tap his foot inside his "personal space". Which Tony proceeded to swat away with his hand, hissing where it was needed, eliciting much giggles as suddenly it became a challenge to see who could invade his little square the most. "Child, this," Tony mimed out a square with his hands, "is my personal space. Not yours. Mine. Now, shoo."
One kid, who Tony mistakenly made eye contact with, responded promptly by twirling expertly around the genius all while remaining on the inside of Tony's little square. Tony sighed in defeat as the whole group joined in and he was suddenly reminded on a cartoon he watched that included a certain sponge and crab.
What seemed like forever, the door finally opened releasing him of the children who rammed their way out of the elevator as if they were all one entity.
"Okay Stark," he whispered to himself. "That was more than enough kids for one day."
A laugh brought him to realize that he wasn't alone. He glanced over to find a man in a suit, looking as if he was here for work purposes more than anything. "Exhausting aren't they? I have three at home."
Tony could only think about what he would do if he had three of those little munchkins running around at home. One, he could handle. Two, he supposed that was okay. But three? Count him out. Then again, children was the last thing on his mind right now. In his thought he had glanced down to realize something.
"Oh," he tapped the man's shoulder and gestured to the tape square. "This is sort of my personal space."
The man glanced at him and then the floor, likely wondering if Tony was being serious or not. Tony must have looked pretty convincing as the man took a clear step away from the square Tony claimed as his personal space. "Sorry about that," he proceeded to look at Tony a confused look on his eye. "Wait...don't I know you from somewhere?"
Tony instantly tried to place in his mind if he's ever seen this man before; today or otherwise. Coming up a blank, he shrugged. "I don't think so."
The elevator door opened, signalling the businessman to leave. As he reached the door he turned around to meet Tony's blue eyes. "Oh right, You're' Howard's boy. The last time I saw you, you were still in diapers–well aside from the news and stuff!"
He gave a good laugh and finally departed muttering "small world" just loud enough for Tony to catch as the elevator filled with more people.
"See this square?" he asked the new occupants of the elevator, pushing his thoughts away from the man. "It's my personal space."
Once again, a child challenges his claim.
Draw a square on the floor and announce to the other passengers: "This is my personal space."
Done.
…
When Tony returned, he wasn't too sure how to feel about that on. Though, the others seemed quite amused.
"Only you, Tony," Rhodey laughed as he munched on a bag of chips. "Only you would get all the children at once."
Exaggeration or not, that's what it certainly felt like to Tony. "Yeah, and those little buggers are testing me. In small groups they're cute, I'll admit, but that much…" he only shuddered.
"Okay, it's Pepper's turn!" Happy, having had enough of their chit-chat.
Pepper high-fived her boyfriend and left to finish this up once and for all. As fun as it was, she wanted to get down to enjoying her day at the hotel, as it was the last day she'd be able to. "See you guys."
"On the flip side!" Happy shouted after her when she shut the door.
She found herself standing between to teens who seemed to be arguing, and happened to use her as their "buffer" so they didn't have to deal with each other on the elevator. Their bickering almost distracted Pepper from her mission, but luckily they stopped three floors above where they were supposed to get off to welcome a soaking young man and his friend. Pepper momentarily thought one of them looked familiar, but shook the thought figuring it didn't matter.
"Say cheese!" she suddenly snapped a picture of the grouchy looking teen to her left with the camera she oh-so-discreetly held in her hands the whole ride. Quickly before the other one could turn away, she got the other one too, not minding if the picture was blurry. It was all for show. "Aw, you're so pretty! I'll remember you forever!"
They looked at her with bulging eyes as if questioning if that really just happened or not. "Excuse me?"
Ignoring them, she turned to the other two, who picked up the memo that it was picture time and posed as if they were models. "We'll be good sports!"
She snapped their picture turning out much better than the two arguing teens. It was when she was setting her arms that she realized where she recognized the one boy from. It was the exact same moment the boy started mimicking a cat and let's out a flirtatious "Meow!"
The world really was small, she realized with oncoming dread. Either that, or this boy just reached the level of stalker–hopefully not on par with the crazy chick who set her eyes on her boy. The boys laughed and Pepper tried to play down her annoyance as surprise. "Yeah...nice seeing you."
She slipped out of the elevator voting to return to her room via the stairs, where hopefully no more awkward or upsetting encounters occurred.
Luckily for her, there was none.
Bring a camera and take pictures of everyone.
Done.
…
Pepper could see the clear annoyance in Tony's eyes as soon as she entered. She can tell that there was definitely a talk that happened between the two brothers, likely to keep Tony from bursting out to "teach them a lesson" as Tony insisted he still should have done.
"Pepper's aloud to do it, but not me?" Tony wondered, trying to defend his wishes.
Rhodey only sighed and tried to explain the difference in the situations to the blue-eyed genius, but his words fell on unlistening ears.
Pepper wrapped her arms around her boyfriend's waist and planted a firm, yet soft kiss on his cheek. "Don't worry, I can handle myself," she assured him.
Luckily, she was far more successful than Rhodey. "Alright, last one Rhodey."
Rhodey nodded and slipped into a costume Happy clearly brought prepared for this one. The size difference between the two teens became more evident than ever in those few moments. "Alright," Rhodey rolled his shoulders. "I'm off."
Knowing this wasn't just his last, but the whole group's last go at the elevators, Rhodey hoped it could bring him more amusement than the last. Not that he'd been particularly fond of the whole deal, but it had grown on him and had become quite entertaining in the end. Arriving at the elevator, Rhodey pushed up a hood to cover his head and a partial part of his face.
He strided into the elevator the black robes of his costume flowing almost gracefully behind him–by gracefully they nearly tripped him in the process of the nearly door closing on them–and came to a stop next to a young man who was currently snacking on a candybar.
He stared at the man, who stared back in confusion, before announcing in his deepest voice, "It is time!"
While the man he stared at only rose his eyebrow in light amusement, sadly not buying into the act, another man whom Rhodey hadn't noticed follow him in went almost hysteric, and not in the laughing way.
Rhodey had to quickly get out of the man's way as he slammed his hands against the door. "No no no! It can't be time! It can't be!" he was practically clawing for the elevator doors to open. "I'm sorry grandma! I'm sorry Mr. Pickles! Lloyd I'm SORRY!"
He continued his fit until the doors finally opened to free the man from the elevator. Rhodey could only stare at the door, not acknowledging the couple that walked in, as he could hear in the distance: "SAVE ME!"
He slowly looked to the younger man, who apparently finished his candybar. Almost at the same time, the two burst out into laughter that was only stopped when they both ran out of breath.
Rhodey pumped his fist in the air in victory, "Yes! It worked!"
The other man gave him congratulatory high-five, much to Rhodey's joy.
Wear a long, black cloak with a hood, stare and in a deep voice, announce, "It is time…"
Done
…
"That was pure GOLD!" Happy slammed Rhodey with a bone-crushing hug. "Did you see his face?"
Pepper finally took a breath from her own uncontrolled laughter. "He truly, honestly believed that he was going to die!"
Rhodey glanced over concerned at the genius, who seemed yet to recover from his bout of laughter as he laid, crumpled in a ball on the floor, not even bothering to get up on the bed only a foot away. "Tony? Do you need some water?"
Clutching his stomach, Tony coughed in between the breaths he was catching up on. "I'm fine. I'll be fine…"
In the midst of their laughter, Happy must have realized something. "Awe, darn it! That was the last one!"
Tony rubbed his eyes as he accepted the redheads help to stand up. He let out one final deep breath. "Yep, a deal's a deal, Happy."
Happy frowned, "It was so fun though."
"Sure," Pepper agreed. "Lot's of fun–aside from the multiple attempts to steal my boyfriend…" she laughed, likely thinking back to the butter "incident". "She got what she deserved."
Happy sighed. "Alright, I'll keep my half of the deal."
"Now," Rhodey announced, rubbing his hands together. "Who want's to go swimming?"
So, what did you think? I know it's been a while, but I stick to my words a long while back, and this is the second to last chapter if all goes as planned next chapter. I feel bad for leaving it for so long only to practically be ending it, but that leaves me one less story unfinished! Sorry to those whose wonderful ideas I didn't get to using. They were really good though! (Probably should have given them to Rhodey)
Fun Fact: I've only ever left my home state once to go on vacation, but I was too young to really remember much.
I'm currently working on the next chapter for HDG and maybe Love is Blind(?). Who knows when those will be done, but unless I get some crazing inspiration for something else, those'll be what's on my up next list.
Hugs and Love, SilverPedals! :D